Client Profile

For six years, CooperKatz teamed with WeatherBug and its parent company, AWS, to raise awareness of its weather network, the largest in the United States (larger than that of the National Weather Service).

WeatherBug streams real-time weather data from more than 8,000 WeatherNet stations – most located atop school buildings – over the Internet to millions of registered users.

CooperKatz drove a multi-tiered campaign that supported the company’s programs and service offerings to educators, broadcasters, marketers, corporate executives and consumers. Highlights included the launch of a WeatherBug partnership with the National Weather Service to support homeland security; the introduction of several software upgrades and new service offerings; and the creation / promotion of blogs used by WeatherBug meteorologists in conjunction with seasonal hurricane coverage and Ground Hog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

As a result of these efforts, WeatherBug was prominently covered in The New York Times five times, reviewed by Walt Mossberg in The Wall Street Journal and reported on by countless newspapers and magazines around the country. In addition, WeatherNet school children appeared on the “TODAY Show” during the weather segment. Over the course of the WeatherBug-CooperKatz relationship, downloads of the company’s desktop application increased from 6 million to more than 65 million.

The CooperKatz team was awarded a SABRE Certificate of Excellence two years in a row for our work to build the WeatherBug brand.

As blogs first emerged as an exciting new communications vehicle, CooperKatz devised a strategy to connect WeatherBug, the online weather service, with the many conversations about weather-related issues happening all over the Web.

CooperKatz encouraged the company to fully jump into the new medium by blogging several major weather events like tornadoes and hurricanes, thereby spotlighting the passionate personalities behind its service and conveying the great lengths they go to cover weather events.

Working closely with the company’s meteorological and marketing teams, we built, launched and promoted a series of ‘event blogs’ written by WeatherBug staffers and tied to pivotal weather events. In each case, we also conducted traditional media outreach. However, the goal was to generate significant inbound blog links and online buzz.

The first blog – the WeatherBug Groundhog Blog – chronicled two WeatherBug meteorologists as they journeyed to Punxsutawney, PA, the center of attention on Groundhog Day. This event was followed by the WeatherBug Storm Chase blog, which posted reports from a team of meteorologists who embarked on a tornado-chasing trip around the Midwest. An especially appealing aspect of this initiative was participation by a fifth grade elementary school teacher from Marathon, NY, who was selected after a nationwide search for educators who were involved in WeatherBug’s academic weather program.

This first phase of the WeatherBug blog program generated 111 in-bound links; 993 user comments; newspaper articles and radio interviews; and more than 547 million WeatherBug page views during the blogging periods.

For six years, CooperKatz teamed with WeatherBug and its parent company, AWS, to raise awareness of its weather network, the largest in the United States (larger than that of the National Weather Service).

WeatherBug streams real-time weather data from more than 8,000 WeatherNet stations – most located atop school buildings – over the Internet to millions of registered users.

CooperKatz drove a multi-tiered campaign that supported the company’s programs and service offerings to educators, broadcasters, marketers, corporate executives and consumers. Highlights included the launch of a WeatherBug partnership with the National Weather Service to support homeland security; the introduction of several software upgrades and new service offerings; and the creation / promotion of blogs used by WeatherBug meteorologists in conjunction with seasonal hurricane coverage and Ground Hog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

As a result of these efforts, WeatherBug was prominently covered in The New York Timesfive times, reviewed by Walt Mossberg in TheWall Street Journal and reported on by countless newspapers and magazines around the country. In addition, WeatherNet school children appeared on the “TODAY Show” during the weather segment. Over the course of the WeatherBug-CooperKatz relationship, downloads of the company’s desktop application increased from 6 million to more than 65 million.

The CooperKatz team was awarded a SABRE Certificate of Excellence two years in a row for our work to build the WeatherBug brand.